Thrust-bearing.



J. A. PERKINS.

THRUST BEARING.

- APPLICATION FILED MAY 6. 1913.

1,218,311. Y Patented Mar.6,1`917.

`intrus A'. PERKINS, or NEW YORK, N. Y.

'runner-BEARING.

and wherein there is great centrifugal strain on the parts, such as in centrifugal ma chines, electric generators, and the like, and

one of the objects is to so construct the same as' to be adaptable to extreme requirements and still occupy a relatively small space.

Various types of rollers-have been experimented with for such purposes, but none of them has been found equal to balls which,

however, are entirely too heavy and cumberl some for bearings of great load capacit as well as too expensive, and I have, there ore, provided rollers which are, in effect, balls, being spherical edged. plates, thus maintain I 'ing the same load capacity as the balls but materially reducing the space required therefor, and also materially reducing the weight and cost of the bearing and, inasmuch asI may use rollers 'of this type of relatively greatdiameter, the speed of rotation thereof with respect to the speed of the supported shaft or equivalent is relatively much slower.

Furthermore, I have found that in high speedmachinery the centrifugal action on .-'f'the rollers requires that anti-frictional thrust bearings be employed on the outer sides thereof to prevent the wear and retardation of operation resulting from a frictional outer bearing for said rollers, and I have also found that a degree of freedom of movement is necessary at these bearing points because of imperfections and linequalities in the parts due to unavoidable inaccurate workmanship, and to overcome this is an important featurezof my invention.

I have also found that perfectly true movement of the supportedshaft is impossibe and I have, -therefore arranged my rollers at an angle, between upper and lower bearingmembers, whereby they are in the line of suspension from the center of Specification of IettersPatent.

Patented Mar. 6, 1917..

Application filed May 6, 1,913. Serial No. 765,783.

effect and result, a ball and socket joint between the shaft Vand connected rollers, and the lower bearing member which permits considerable lateral play of the lower end of the shaft and avoids thenecessity forextreme accuracy of workmanship otherwise unavoidable.

My invention is fully set forth in the following specification, of which the accom-v panylng drawings form a part, in which the separate parts are designated by the same reference characters in each of the views,A

and in which Figure l-is a view of a thrust bearing constructed in accordance with my present invention, partly in section, and adapted for a vertical shaft;

Fig. 2 is a side view of an equ'alizing plate which I employ to compensate for unequal or imperfect operation; and Fig. 3 is a similar view taken at right angles to Fig. 2'.

In the drawings forming a part of this application I have shown a shaft a su-pported, vthrough intermediate parts, by a base a2, said shaft having' a collar a3 at the upper end thereof held in position by means of a nut a4, the lower surface of said collar being inclined to-the axis of the shaft and also concaved and I may, if desired, bore the shaft longitudinally at its upper end for l Seated upon the base a2 is a ring b having its upper inner edge beveled and concaved, as shown at b2, on an arc of a circle the radius of which is the line struck from the axis of the shaft at whichever point is determined to be the center of shaft suspension to any point of .said arc or to any point of said concavity, this being an important feature of my device, as will be later seen.

Arranged about the shaft a is a roller carrying cage vo which is maintained in normal" relationship therewith by means of a hardened ring c2 at the lower cage end and bearing upon a series of yrollers a3 arranged longitudinally of said shaft and carried by a suitable cage c4, said shaft having a hardened sleeve 05 thereon upon which said rollers impinge and having, also, flanges 06 and ,c7 for confining the roller cage c4, a floating `and that of the ring are a plurality of rollers d, each of which is the'equivalent of a plate out from the center of a ball of equal diameter, the radius of the edge of each of which is equal to the radius of the concavity7 in the lower vbearing member b, thus presenting a line bearing, instead of a'point bearing, of the rollers on the lower bearing member, and providing Ja spherical edge to each of said rollers and which results in rollers of the full equivalent of balls limited to one direction of movement as to lack of friction and as to load capacity, and l prefer to make the curvature of the bearing portion of the collar a3 on an are the, radius of which is that recognized by manu# facturers as standard for balls of given diameters lin conventional ball bearings, thus not departing from the advantages of ball bearings in this particular, but I may make the radius of the said arc equal to that of the roller edges and to that of the lower bearing member, thereby presenting a line bearing ofthe rollers on the upper bearing member also, and it will be noted that the rollers d are arranged in the direct line of suspension of the shaft on the ring b, whereby any lateral shaft movement is taken by said ring, throughthe medium of the rollers d, in the nature of a ball and socket joint which insures shaft suspension at all points of the bearin portion b2 of the ring at all tilnes,'an my rollers possess the added advantage of elimination of additional parts and friction of such ball and socket joints.

Each of the rollers d is provided with an inner pintled2, preferably shouldered as shown, rotating ina hardened cup als inthe cage c, balls d'1 being interposed between said pintles and cups to render thefconnection anti-frictional, and an outer pintle d5"y is providedl for each ,of the rollers butv of larger transverse diameter than the inner pintles, a series of balls als being arranged between each of the pintles d5 and a hardened ball confining ring Z7 arranged in a suitable recess in the outer side of the cage c.

specific number of rollers, but gage the num- These recesses in the outer cage surface are internally screw-threaded, as shown at e, to receive caps e2 which are recessed on their inner sides for the reception of hardened ball bearing rings e3 and for pressure equalizing plates e4 to distribute and maintain the thrust equally on allof the balls of each series at all times irrespective of structural inequalities of these parts, said plates comprising, in the form shown, rings which are outwardly curved at quadrant points on opposite faces whereby the effect of gimbal rings results, thus permitting suiii cient movement of the rings e3 in any direction of strain or load to accommodate the same, together 4with the balls al, to any abnormal roller movement otherwise unequal, and the centrifugal action on the balls and rollers is thus taken in a flexible manner; some such equalizing devices are absolutely essential for the reason-that perfection of workmanship does not exist,v especially in the heavier classes of machinery for which my invention is particularly designed and, the balls in the lower part of the outer bearving of each load carrying roller being farther away from the axis of the shaft than are the balls in the upper part of said bearing, said first named balls are subjected to far greater pressure from centrifugal acall tion than theI last named-unless some such pressure equalizing and distributing device is employed.

By vmeans of the screw-thread connection between the cage c and the caps e2 any d e- 10G sired adjustment of the parts may be obtained, said caps being externally recessed angularlyfor a socket -wrench, although any other form of cap tightening may be employed, and it will be observed that, be-

cause `of the high speed of the shaft rotation, the oil is thrown -centrifugally over by the requirements and by the sizes of the rollers which are made as large as possible in order to reduce the speed of revolution thereof and Ido not vlimit myself to any ber and size thereof to the requirements in space, speed and load. f

From the -above it will lbe seen that not only do I provide a thrust bearing capable of very high speed ofv shaft rotation and of great load capacity, but l also provide means for accommodating the bearing to shaft oscillation because of the flexibility resulting from the concaved formation of the lower bearing member; also provide a 13o roller bearing cage, `means for insuring a constant relationship between shaft and cage, means for taking the roller thrust due to centrifugal action centrifugally, and means for compensating for abnormal roller movement for any cause through the medium of the flexible ball bearings whereby all the balls have the roller thrust distributed equally thereover irrespective of structural inequalities and regardless of the distance of the balls from the shaft which varies the centrifugal action thereon and, because of the relatively large rollers, the speed of roller revolution is correspondingly slower than is that of the shaft, resulting vin .r slower cage revolution 4and consequent lessened centrifugal action on the rollers and their bearings, and I also provide a controllable system of lubrication for all the parts.

v My bearing is simple in construction and in assembling or disassemblin reason that my rollers, cage, ro ler thru t bearings, and connected parts are a uni, thus saving much time in installation and obviating the possibility of faulty assembling by careless or unskilled workmen, but

still permitting adjustment of the parts when necessary by means of the nuta* forv the rollers between bearings, and by means of the caps e for the roller thrust bearings,

for the .it being necessary to make 4such adjustments at times, particularly in new bearings after the parts have become well settled and aC- commodated, one to the other.

Having fully set forth my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by LettersPatent, is

The combination with a rotating element of a curved bearing member carried thereby, a base, a curved bearing member carried by said base, a plurality of rollers interposed between said bearing members, a cage for said rollers, a cap on said cage on the axis of each roller, a bearing ring in each cap,

a plurality of balls interposed between each roller and each bearing ring, and an equal- 'as my invention I have signed my name 1n presence of the subscribing Witnesses this 5th day of May 1918.

JULIUS A. PERKINS.l

Witnesses WILLIAM A. BOECKEL, J. C.' LARSEN. 

